From the producers of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Game

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Judge: Spider-Man and Caplain Marvel, you're patrolling over the city when Spider-Man hears an alarm ringing be­hind a fur store.

Mike: We'lI check it out.

Thug: There's only two of 'em! Let's get 'em!

Spider-Man: An alarm, from the fur store. Let's check il out.

Judge: Captain Marvel's force beam slices through the hood of the truck. but two of the thugs are drawing weapons and moving toward Spider-Man.

Mike: I give them both a sock in the jaw.

Judge: A trUCk, with its motor running, is backed up to the loading dock. A couple of tough-looking men are throwing furs in­to the back 01 the truck. They don't look fike delivery boys.

Unda: Captain Marvel will disable the truck if Spidey can take oul the thugs.

Mike: No problem.

Spider-Man: Nighty.night, boys. LuCky for you there were only two of us.

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Welcome to the MARVEL SUPER HEROESTM Game,

The book you're holding in your hands is the Battle Book, the first part of the MARVEL SUPER HEROES'" Game.

The MARVEL SUPER HEROES'" Game is a role­playing game. As a player, you pretend to be your favor­ite Marvet® Comics super hero, using his super powers 10 fight deadly foes like the Hobgoblin, Viper, and Doctor Octopus. You can be the Thing, Captain America, or even me, your friendly, neighborhood Spider-Man.

The MARVEL SUPER HEROES'" Game is divided into three books: the Battle Book (you're reading it now), the Campaign Book, and the Adventure Book. You also get a sheet of dazzling counters, a swell map with central New York City on one side and some building interiors on the other, and two funny-looking dice.

This rule book (the Battle Book, remember?) describes super heroes and their powers, how they fight bad guys, and how to play the first adventure. The Campaign Book describes sec(et identities, vehicles, super-societies, even more about heroes, and lots of other stuff a cos­tumed crimefighter needs to know. Read this book first and play the introductory chapter of "The Day of the Octopus," before reading the Campaign Book.

Before playing the game, one player has to read this rule book. Don't memorize the rules, just read them and get a general idea of what's going on. Then get a few friends, explain the basic ideas to them, K'7:' .. and start playing. You can learn the rules by playing. If somebody asks a question, look it up! If you're not sure how something works, just try it. It's easier to understand once you start playing and doing things.

Some rules in this book are marked with my spider symbol. These rules are optional. Ignore the optional rules the first time you read the Battle Book, and play the in­troductory chapter without them. Atter you're familiar with the game, read the op­tional rules. You can play with some, all, or none of the optional rules; use the ones you like and ignore the others.

Remember those funny­looking dice? They have ten sides instead of six. /J(h" In the MARVEL SUPER HEROES" Game, they're called

true believers! percentile dice, and are used to roll numbers from 1 to 1 00. Roll both dice; the number showing on the dark die is the tens digit, and the number on the light die is the ones digit.

For example, if you roll 5 on the dark die and 3 on the light die, you've rolled 53. If you roll 7 on the dark die and a on the light, you've rolled 70. But if the dark die is a and the light die 7, the number is 07, or 7. A roll of a on both dice is 100.

Use the crayon to fill in the numbers on the dice, and wipe off any excess wax with a tissue or cloth. This makes the dice easier to read.

Okay, all that preliminary stuff is out of the way, so fet's get this show on the road. We can now turn the page and ask the musicaf question . . .

WHAT IS A HER

A fot of people think of heroes as odd, powerful weirdos who hang Bround in funny costumes and throw punches at villains. Actually, we're just plain folks. Sure, OUf spe­cial powers make us a little tougher than yOUf average Joe, but most of those powers are just normal abilities that have been tremendously improved.

Every hero, villain, and ordinary character in the Mar­vel!! Universe has seven abilities: Fighting, Agility, Strength, Endurance, Reason, Intuition, and Psyche. Each ability describes how well that character can do something, like pick up heavy objects, dodge flying bul­lets and rocks, or beat up bad guys. These abilities are described below.

FIGHTING is the ability to punch, poke, jab, kick, trip, wallop, or whack someone, with bare hands or with a weapon. Captain America is good at this sort of thing. Even though he doesn't have any super powers, he fights so well that he holds his own against super­powered foes.

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AGILITY is the ability to hit an opponent with a weapon that is thrown or fired. It also measures the ability to dodge a missile that somebody threw or fired at you. In fact, this ability covers everything that takes coordina­tion: jumping from roof to roof, somersaulting over a wall, catching a baseball. While I don't like to brag, yours truly is a fine example of high Agility. I'm fast, nim­ble, and an ace shot with my trusty web-shooters.

STRENGTH measures how much weight a hero can lift and how hard he can punch with bare hands. Someone with tremendous strength, like the Hulk or the Thing, can toss around railroad cars and punch holes in battle­ships. My own dear Aunt May, on the other hand, has trouble opening the closet door.

ENDURANCE measures how far a hero can push him­self, and how well he resists the effects of gas, poison, and stuff like that. Again, the Incredible Hulk is a good example of high Endurance; he can hold his breath for hours, and he never gets tired.

REASON equals brains, or raw smarts. It measures the ability to think logically and use complicated equipment. Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four) can repair machines, invent new machines that warp grav­ity, open doors to other dimensions, and even figure out alien technology. He gets a high score for his Reason ability.

INTUITION is wits and common sense. It goes hand­in-hand with Reason. A hero uses Intuition to notice something everyone else missed, when he senses dan­ger, or when he has a hunch. People with high Intuition are very aware of the world around them. Not that I'm bragging, but my spider-sense gives me high Intuition.

PSYCHE (si'-key) measures force of will. It also affects mental powers and magical spells. A few heroes have learned to harness their Psyche and use it to wield magi­cal power. The most famous is Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange.

Each of a hero's seven abilities has a rank, from Feeble (the lowest) to Unearthly (the highest). Ranks are described below. I'll explain the rank numbers later.

Table 1: Rank Numbers and Descriptions

Rank

Feeble

Poor Typical Good Excellent Remarkable Incredible Amazing

Monstrous

Unearthly

Class 1000

No. Description

2 Far below average human ability

4 Below average human ability 6 Average human ability

10 Above average human ability 20 Olympic ability 30 Limit of natural human ability 40 Enhanced human ability 50 Highest rank possible for

anything considered human 75 Beyond the realm of

humanity 100 The limit of human ability to

describe and understand 1000 Beyond human ability to

comprehend

Every hero in the game has an information card. The information card lists all seven of the hero's abilities and each ability's rank. You'll find my own handy-dandy information card on the character folder. Take a look and you'll see that each of my seven abilities has a rank. Go ahead and look; I'm not shy. I'll be waiting in the next paragraph . . .

SUPER POWERS

In addition to incredible. . um, amazing . . . really good abilities, most super heroes have super powers. But instead of describing all the powers here, each hero's powers and their effects are listed on the hero's information card.

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For example, my super powers are spider-sense, wall­crawling, and a special weapon (my web-shooters). If you didn't notice these on my information card, take another look right now (how high did you say your Intui­tion was?).

TALENTS

Super heroes don't spend all of their time nabbing bad guys and saving the world. Most of us have jobs that require skills, and everybody has a hobby or two. Because of our interests, we heroes develop talents unrelated to our lives as costumed crimefighters.

The difference between these talents and our super powers is that any normal man can learn a talent; you don't have to be a super-anything to have a talent or two. These talents and their effects are described on each hero's information card.

For example, l've always loved chemistry, and I've been taking photos for the Daily Bugle since I was a student at Midtown High. My talents, then, are chemistry and pho-

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tography. These talents and their effects are listed on my information card (you didn't put it away again, did you?).

Assigning Super Powers and Talents

If you want to use Marvel® heroes that aren't described in this game, it's easy to pick their super powers and tal­ents. First, study the hero's books. Marvel® Comics are the best resources, and they're easy to get if the hero is still active.

Use super powers to describe special aspects of the hero that aren't covered by his abilities. For example, the Thing is real strong. He doesn't need Strength as a super power, though, because his Strength ability rank is Monstrous; that covers his super strength. He also has rock-hard skin that shrugs off bazooka shells; now, that's a super power worth writing home about.

If you make up your own super heroes, be sure to study "The Origin of . ." in the Campaign Book.

VARIABLE ABILITIES

Take anolher look at my information card (I hope you're keeping it out where you can see it; there's lots of impor­tant stuff there). After my seven abilities, but before my super powers and talents, are four more abilities: Health, Karma, Resources, and Popularity. These aren't quite like the abilities we discussed earlier, because these change while you're playing the game. That's why they're called variable abilities.

HEALTH is a number between 8 and 400. It indicates generally how healthy and physically fit the hero is. When a hero isn't sick or hurt, his Health equals the sum of his Fighting, Agility, Strength, and Endurance rank numbers. When a hero gets hurt (usually because he got thumped by a bad guy), a few points are subtracted from his Health. The exact number depends on who got hit, who did the hitting, and what the hitting was done with. That's all explained later.·

If a hero's Health is reduced to 0 or less, that hero is knocked out cold for the rest of the fight.· While he's out, the bad guys will probably slip away with whatever they were after, insult him behind his back, and gloat a lot. When we good guys knock somebody out, we simply give the nasty villain to the Boys in Blue, then swing away into the sunset.

Healing. An injured or sick hero regains Health points equal to his current Endurance rank number every day. This number is doubled if the hero rests in bed all day, and tripled if he is under a doctor's care or in a hospital. (If you think this is too easy on us, think again; when I'm in the middle of an adventure, I'm lucky to find time to chow down.) If the hero's Endurance rank was reduced,· he regains one rank per week. Healing con­tinues until the hero's Health and Endurance return to normal.

KARMA reflects a hero's control over luck and fate. Heroes can use their Karma to pull themselves out of bad situations, load all of their energy into one punch, or otherwise save themselves when all the cookies are on the line.

• (See "It's Clobberin' Time," p. 10 - Sentient Steve)

Karma points can be used to modify dice rolls. Basically, spending one Karma point adds one point to the roll. The details of this are explained in the next section, "FEATs."

The hero can spend as many Karma points as he has, but heroes seldom have many at one time. At the start of a game, a hero has Karma points equal to the sum of his Reason, Intuition, and Psyche rank numbers. That seems like a lot, but, believe me, it goes fast.

Heroes can spend Karma to raise the result of any FEAT dice roll. Karma also can be spent to raise a hero's Resources or abilities.

RESOURCES is a fancy name for money, something I never seem to have. At this paint in the game, you don't need to worry about money yet. We'll talk about Resources in the Campaign Book.

WSSTAND

POPULARITY measures how well-liked the hero is. Like Resources, Popularity isn't very important unless you're playing a campaign game, so we'll talk about it more in the Campaign Book .

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FEATs

To be a super-powered hero, you've got to do things that will make people look up from their Daily Bugles and say "Wow!" when they read about your FEATs.

Whenever a hero tries to do something incredible, like bending steel girders or dodging bullets, he's aHempt­ing a FEAT: A Function of Exceptional Ability or Talent. To determine if the FEAT succeeds, the player rolls the dice; if the number rolled is high enough, the FEAT worked. This is called making a FEAT roll.

On this book's back cover is the Universal Table, The Universal Table helps determine if the number rolled is high enough for the FEAT to succeed. The 11 ability ranks are listed across the top of the table, plus two extra columns: Shift 0 and Shift X. (The two shift columns are used in fights, so we'll talk about them later.) Down the left side is a list of numbers from 01 to 100.

To make a FEAT roll, (all the dice and find the number rolled along the left side of the table. Across the top of the table, find the ability rank that the hero used. Now find the box where the ability rank's column and the number's row intersect. The color of that box indicates whether the FEAT succeeded (green, yellow, or red) or failed (white).

Table 2 lists the seven abilities, and a few examples of the kinds of things a hero can do using each ability.

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Tabla 2: Abilities and Activities

Ability

Fighting

Agility

Strength Endurance Reason Intuition Psyche

Activities

AHacking with bare hands, a club, or a knife Dodging, jumping, acrobatics, throwing things lifting, breaking, bending, wrestling Resisting unconsciousness or poison Understanding technology Avoiding surprise, finding clues Casting spells, resisting mental control

So much for the basics. Let's look at an example.

Here I am swinging through the Big Apple when I spot a fuzzy little pup running into the street, right in front of a delivery truck. I've got to swoop down, grab the puppy, and swing to safety with it. Even though I do stuff like this all the time, it's not as easy as it looks. I'm using my Agility to aHempt a FEAT.

Let's say the FEAT roll is 18. Since 18 is between 15 and 20, we look at the 15-20 rowan the Universal Table, and because my Agility rank is Amazing, we look at the Amazing column. The intersection of the row and column is white, so the FEAT fails! I miss the puppy, and wonder why I ever thought this was a good idea. . .

If the dice roll was 59, I would have checked the 56-50 row. The Amazing column intersects the 56-60 row in a yellow box-Bingol I swoop down, grab the pup, and swing back into the clear blue just as the truck roars past, all right under J.J. Jameson's office window.

Piece 0' cake! No . . . oof . . . sweat! You've gotta be kidding!

A FEAT roll is necessary only when a hero does some­thing out of the ordinary. Walking down the street or opening a door doesn't require a FEAT roll. Neither does flying or swinging on a web, if that's something the hero does normally. On the other hand, flying through a small window or swinging between a pair of whirling blades is a lot more difficult; dangerous actions require FEAT rolls. And some things are just impossible, no matter how well the player rolls on the Universal Table (you'll never see me picking up ajumbo jet!). The best guide to what is and isn't possible are Marvel®comics. If the hero can do it in the comic books, he can it in th;,e;:;,;;;�

Using Karma

When his fat's in the fire and a hero really needs that FEAT roll to succeed, he can spend Karma points to improve his chances of success. Before rolling the dice, the player announces that he's spending Karma (and what color of FEAT he's attempting, if you're using that optional rule or if the hero is in combat).

If the dice roll isn't as high as the player wanted, sub­tract the roll from the number needed to accomplish the FEAT. Next, add this number of points to the dice roll, and subtract the same number from the hero's Karma. TA DA! You've just turned a low roll into a successful FEAT.

Of course, if the hero doesn't have enough Karma points to make up the difference between the dice roll and the number that was needed, he can't accomplish the FEAT. In this case, simply subtract 10 points from the hero's Karma. He doesn't have to spend all of his Karma if it won't raise the score to what he wanted. In fact, once a player says he is going to use Karma, he must spend at least 1 0 paints, even if he gets lucky and makes the FEAT roll without adding anything. It's expensive to spend Karma on everthing; a smart hero saves Karma until he really needs it.

Besides using Karma to raise his own dice rolls, a hero can use it to lower somebody else's. If somebody hits a hero, and he doesn't like it, he can lower their dice roll to the next lower color by paying 40 Karma points.

Finally, only the good guys get to spend Karma freely. Characters controlled by the Judge can spend only 20 Karma points on anyone dice roll. They can spend any amount to save their lives or build things.

Heroes who get attacked when they weren't expecting to be attacked can't spend Karma during the first round of a fight.

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Things

No, this isn't about Ben Grimm's family. I'm going to dis­cuss tearing cars apart, ripping street lights out of the pavement, punching holes in brick walls, and other fun things like that.

Like abilities, materials are ranked from Poor to Unearthly. If the hero's Strength rank is better than the material's rank, he can rip it apart, break it up, or other­wise mangle it if he makes a green FEAT roll. If the mate­rial is ranked the same as the hero's Strength, he needs a yellow FEAT roll, and if it is ranked higher, he must make a red FEAT roll.

Table 3: Material Strength

Feeble Poor Typical Good

Excellent Remarkable Incredible Amazing Monstrous Unearthly Class 1000

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- cloth, glass, brush, paper - ice, common plastic, wood, crystal - rubber, soft metals (gold, brass) - mortared brick, aluminum,

light machinery - concrete, iron, bullet-proof glass - reinforced concrete, steel - solid stone, vibranium - steel alloys, granite - diamond, heavy super-alloys - adamantium steel, mystical e!ements - A tew special elements cannot be

affected by brute force. Three examples are pure adamantium, Captain Ameri­ca's shield (made of an adamantiuml vibranium alloy), and Thor's Hammer, Miolnir (made of mystic elements and imbued with power by Odin himself) .

MOVING ON THE MAP

Look at the game map. On one side is a typical down­town section of a big city, and on the other are a few building interiors. Both maps arB divided into areas by dotted and solid lines. When heroes move, they travel from area to area.

Most heroes have their pictures painted on a counter. The counters show the hero's location on the map. Actu­ally, the little arrow in the corner shows the hero's exact location; if Ihe counter is too large to fit inside an area the hero is in, place the tip of the arrow in the area.

Cap is in the ice cream store, even though his counter over/aps some of the adjacent areas.

A hero's Endurance determines how far he can move in one round. A hero with Feeble Endurance can move only one area, a hero with Poor to Excellent Endurance can move two areas, and a hero with Remarkable or bet­ter Endurance can move three areas.

All lines on the map outline areas. Thick solid lines rep­resent outside walls, and thin solid lines represent inside walls. Dotted lines don't represent any kind of barrier; they just outline area boundaries. Heroes can cross dotted lines without looking for doors or otherwise being slowed down.

Sometimes, a hero must go through a wall without doors or windows. In this case, he can try crashing through the wall. • Outside walls are usually Excellent material; inside walls are Typical material. Walls might be stronger or weaker in special cases.

A hero can keep people from entering a doorway by standing in it. Anyone trying to go through the door must slam, stun, or charge the character in the doorway; slamming, stunning, and charging are explained in "It's Clobberin' Time!"

If there's a lot of stuff in an area (desks, boxes, trash­cans) put a clutter marker in it. If a big crowd gathers, put a crowd marker in that area. A hero on the ground has to make an Agility FEAT roll to move into or out of a crowded or cluttered area.

• (See FEATs-Steve.)

It's hard to fight in crowded areas, too. Any attack in a crowded or cluttered area gets shifted one column to the left. Any missile weapon or thrown item that misses its target in a crowd hits an innocent bystander. Three rounds after a fight starts in a crowded area, the crowd clears away.

The number in the corner of each building is its height in stories. Each story is 10 feet high.

Heroes sometimes climb the sides of buildings. Each story counts as one area. Most people can move only one area per round on a building's side, but somebody like me, with a speCial power that allows normal move­ment on vertical surfaces, moves at normal speed.

Anyone moving across the outside of a building, whether it's an outside wall or the roof, ignores the build­ing's interior walls (the thin solid lines, remember?). They must still pay attention to dotted lines or outside walls (the thick solid lines). Even flying characters must pay the cost to move across dotted lines or thick solid lines, since these are area boundaries.

People with Endurances below Remarkable can climb one story per round on stairs. Those with Endurances of Remarkable or better can climb two per round. An ele­vator takes one round to reach any floor it's heading for.

Some heroes have special powers that allow them to jump around like giant bullfrogs. The rest of us must make Agility FEAT rolls to jump from building to build­ing, and we can't cross more than one area doing so.

If somebody falls from a building, he loses 10 Health points for each story. If that doesn't knock him out, he must make an Endurance FEAT roll; on a white result, he also passes out for one round for each story he fell. Heroes can spend Karma to reduce damage from fail­ing; each Karma point reduces damage by one point. A falling person falls 10 stories (100 feet) per round.

•

Welrhead hadda go save somebody, so he asked me to take over for a while. He couldn't have made a better choice, if I say so myself, 'cause

IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!

During fights, we break time up into turns called Rounds (like rounds in a boxing match). Each round is like one panel in a comic book. Keep that in mind when you play; if a hero can't do something in one panel in a comic book, he can't do it in one round in the game. (Some folks will insist on knowing how much time a round cov­ers; well, it varies according to what's happening. A round usually runs anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds, depending on what the Judge decides. About the only firm rule is that a hero or villain can attack only once per round, unless he has special powers.)

This is what happens during a round of fighting:

1. The Judge decides what the bad guys are doing. He doesn't tell anybody; he just remembers it for himself.

2. The good guys tell the Judge what they're doing that round.

3. The Judge and one player each roll a die. If the Judge rolls higher, the bad guys have initiative that round. If the player rolls the high number, the heroes get initiative. If the numbers are tied, they roll again.

4. The side with initiative is the attacker, and the other side is the defender. The attacking side moves its heroes (or villains) and clobbers the other side.

5. Next, the side that didn't get initiative becomes the attacker, moves its heroes or villains, and clobbers the other guys.

Moving and Clobbering. To slug or grab somebody, a hero must be in the same area and right next to the creep (unless he's got a special power). When two guys can hit each other, put their counters together so the arrows in the corners touch.

A character can move and attack somebody in the same round, but his Fighting, Agility, or Strength ability gets shifted one column to the left for that attack. Even if a hero can't reach the bad guy, he can still clobber the piker by throwing something (but I'll explain that later).

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Combat boils down to FEAT rolls. Different kinds of clob· berin' use different abilities. Combat styles and abilities are explained like this:

Slugfest: Two guys pounding each other senseless with their hands, feet, big sticks, or any blunt instrument is a slugfest. Any attempt to hit somebody this way is a Fighting FEAT.

Hack & Slash: Attacking with a sharp weapon is a Fight· ing FEAT, too. Sharp weapons-knives, swords, spears, and other pointy things-are more dangerous than blunt weapons.

Shooting and Throwing: Two kinds of things can be used from a distance: missile weapons and thrown items. Missile weapons, like guns and bows, shoot an object at the target. Thrown items, like rocks and boom· erangs, are actually thrown at the target. Of course, a hero must be able to see what he's throwing or shooting at. Some super powers can be used from a distance, too. Attacking with any distance weapon is an Agility FEAT.

All missile weapons have limited ranges, which are listed on Table 4: Weapons. The area next to the hero

counts as area number one. The range of thrown items depends on the thrower's Strength. A hero can throw something one area, plus another area for each rank that his Strength is above Typical. With my Monstrous Strength, I can throw something seven areas; Mon­strous is six ranks above Typical, plus one because any­body can throw something one area.

Dodging: If a hero is afraid of getting a boo-boo, at the start of the round he can say he's dodging instead of attacking. Every time a villain punches, grabs, hits, shoots, or throws something at him, the hero makes an Agility FEAT roll and consults the Dodging column on the Battle Effects Table.

Grappling: Wrestling, squeezing, crushing, and chok­ing are all forms of grappling. Grappling is a Strength FEAT. Escaping from a hold and wrestling an object from somebody's grasp are also Strength FEATs.

Charging: Occasionally, I smash my whole body into some joker, or jump down onto him. That's called charg­ing, and it's an Endurance FEAT. When it works, it works well. When it fails, I'm in big trouble.

To charge somebody, the attacker must be able to see the thug he's charging. He must also be close enough to reach the target in one round, but not right next to it. He has to be at least a few steps away so he can build up a good head of steam. Then he charges right into the guy, shifts one column to the right of his Endurance rank on the Universal Table for each area he charges through, and makes an Endurance FEAT roll. He also does more damage, because he shifts his Strength rank one column to the right for each column he shifts his Endur­ance.

If a charging attacker misses completely, he keeps mov­ing straight ahead. If there's an object in front of him, he hits it (look at the "1 Area" slam result to see what hap­pens). Otherwise, he just roars into the next area and must make an Agility FEAT roll to avoid tripping and fail­ing.

Getting Hurt

When a guy gets punched, stabbed, choked, or other­wise injured, he loses points from his Health .. When he doesn't have any Health points left, he goes to sleepy­bye land. Then he has to make an Endurance FEAT roll.

If the result is green, yellow, or red, he stays uncon­scious until the fighting ends in his area, plus another 1 to 10 rounds (roll one die when the battle stops or moves away).

If the result is white, the poor beggar's dying. At the end of the next round, his Endurance drops one rank, and keeps dropping one rank at the end of every following round. When his Endurance drops below Feeble, the guy's an ex-hero, as in pushing up daisies.

Sounds pretty grim, huh? It isn't as bad as all that. If anybody spends a round helping a dying hero (or vil­lain), the lucky fellow stops losing Endurance ranks and remains unconscious, as explained above. Helping somebody doesn't take any special skill. Also, when his Endurance reaches Feeble, he can stay alive (barely) by spending 5 Karma points per round to keep his Endur­ance from dropping below Feeble.

Punching and Grappling. When an attacker smacks or grapples a defender, the damage he does equals his Strength rank number. The defender must subtract this amount from his Health. So when I use my Monstrous Strength to pound somebody with my best Sunday punch, he loses 75 Health points.

Thrown Items. A thrown item causes damage equal to the Material rank number of the stuff it's made of, or the Strength rank number of the guy that threw it, whichever is less. (Things like knives or spears can be thrown or held; if they're held, use the damage listed on the Weap­ons Table, otherwise, treat them as normal thrown items·r

People can be tossed around, too, just like anything else. First, the attacker must grab his target by grap­pling (a Strength FEAT, remember?). If he succeeds, he can toss the defender down the way. The defender must then make two Endurance FEAT rotls; first he checks the "Slam?" column, then he checks the "Stun?" column. If he isn't slammed or stunned, he lands on his feet in the same area, out of the other guy's reach.

Weapons. Hack & Slash weapons and weapons that provide their own power, like guns, do a set amount 01 damage. This damage is listed on Table 4: Weapons. Blunt weapons cause damage equal to the attacker's Strength rank number, shifted up one rank.

Clobbering Lots of People. When I tackle a bunch of creeps at once, I don't waste muscle knocking them out one at a time. Instead, I get 'em all with one Sunday punch, like Aunt Petunia taught me. Anybody can do it,

"

but it's not easy. If a hero wants to smash more than one guy at once, he makes a FEAT roll using the ability that applies (Fighting for punching and Endurance forcharg­ing). If the result is yellow or red, the hero nails the whole bunch, friend or foe. If it's green or white, he misses eve­rybody.

Wrestling's a little bit different. A hero can shake off any number of attackers with one yellow FEAT roll, but he needs special powers to grab more than two guys at once.

If a hero wants to mash a bunch of goons from a dis­tance, there's only one way to do it: throw something really big, like a chunk of pavement. Tossing something thai big affects everybody in the area, but they all get a chance to jump out of the way by making an Agility FEAT roll. (Captain America can toss his shield into lots of clowns, but that's a special power.)

Pulling Punches. If a hero is a big guy like me and doesn't want to hurt somebody too bad, he can hit softer. Most attacks can be reduced by one color: from red to yellow, or yellow to green. Or, the attack can do less damage; I don't need all 75 points to knock out most Joes. A player doesn't need to say how much he's pulling a punch until after he finds out if it hits.

The only way to change damage from missile weapons or thrown items, though, is to spend Karma. Guns and bows are dangerous, and can kill accidentally. Reduc­ing a missile or thrown item kill to a simple bull's-eye costs 50 Karma points, period. That's why heroes usu­ally don't carry guns.

Body Armor. Being orange and rocky is nobody's pic­nic, but it does have one advantage: stuff bounces off. Iron Man's armor does the same thing, and Man-thing's squishy body has the same effect by letting things pass right through. No matter what a guy's armor looks like, it protects him from damage.

All body armor has an armor rank. Before a defender with body armor must subtract any paints from his Health, an attacker must do more points of damage than the armor rank of the defender's body armor. Even if an attacker manages to hurt a defender wearing body armor, he must subtract the defender's body armor rank from the damage he normally inflicts. For instance, my skin is Remarkable armor, so I don't take any damage unless the guy's Strength is at least Incredible. If a creep with Incredible Strength does hit me, I still lose only 10 Health points. His Incredible Strength rank (40) minus my Remarkable body armor rank (30) equals 10 Health points. Simple, huh?

Force fields' do the same thing, but they affect all kinds of allacks; punches, bullets, energy beams, electrical shocks, everything! Regular body armor like mine affects energy beams and force bolts and weird stuff like that as if it was four ranks lower than it really is. If that

• (Only sharp thrown items like knives kill; blunt thrown items stun instead-Steve.)

squirt Annihilus blasted me with one of his cosmic energy beams, my armor would only be Poor.

If the attacker's Strength rank equals the defender's armor rank, the defender can be slammed, stunned, or even killed, but he doesn't lose any Health paints.

Getting Hit When You're Down. Some really wicked villains will clobber a hero when he's unconscious. This really hurts. Each successful hit a villain lands costs the unconscious hero an Endurance rank. Well, nobody said this was an easy job.

The Battle Effects Table

Clobberin' FEATs are different from normal FEATs because the colors on the Universal Table mean some­thing, instead of just bein' pretty.

When an attacker tries to make a combat FEAT roll, he finds the ability he's using and what he's trying to do on the Bailie Effects Table (right underneath the Universal Table). Next, he rolls the dice and compares the color of the result he gets on the Universal Table to the color on the Battle Effects Table. The effect of his combat FEAT is listed right there in same color as his dice roll on the Uni· versal Table.

For example, let's say "m having a lillie fun bouncing my delicate digits off some Skrull's cranium (a slugfest). My Fighting ability is Incredible. My dice roll result is 44. That's a green box in the Incredible column. Looking at the Effects Table, the green box under Stugfes! says "Hit." Voila! I creamed the little creep.

Here's what all the results mean:

Miss: The hero didn't succeed. He can usually try again in the next round.

Hit: The defender gets clobbered. He loses a few Health points, depending on what form the attack took.

Slam: If the attacker's Strength is at least equal to the defender's Endurance, the defender must make an Endurance FEAT roll and consull the "Slam?" column of the Bailie Effects Table.

Stun: If the attacker's Strength at least equals the defender's Endurance, the defender must make an Endurance FEAT roll and consullthe "Stun?" column of the Battle Effects Table.

Kill: The defender is dying, fast. He loses all his Health paints and passes out. His Endurance falls one rank at the end of every round until he dies (when his Endur­ance rank falls below Feeble). He doesn't get to make an Endurance FEAT roll to avoid this. If somebody spends a round helping him before he dies, he stops los­ing Endurance. Once his Endurance reaches Feeble, he can stay alive by spending 5 Karma points per round to keep his Endurance at Feeble.

Bull's-Eye (thrown items or missile weapons only): The attacker hits the target wherever he wants. There are some limits on this: first, the attacker can't kill or maim a living, human-sized target by hitting him in a vital area, like the heart or head. (Killing shots are already taken into account on the Battle Effects Table.) The attacker can temporarily disable the defender by shooting him in the arm or leg. He can also shoot an object out of somebody's hand, or even shoot a lever or bulton on a machine. In any case, the attacker must say he's trying for a buWs-eye (and say what he's trying to hit) before rolling the dice. Otherwise, this is just a nor­mal hit.

2,4, or 6 Shifts: Anybody attacking the hero this round shifts their attack 2, 4, or even 6 columns to the left on the Universal Table.

Hold: The attacker has grabbed the defender and pinned him in a bearhug, headlock, armlock, or other wreslling hold. This causes the same damage as punch­ing, but the allacker keeps dishing out damage every round without making another FEAT roll until he lets go, or until the defender escapes.

13

Escape: The defender slips out of the hold and gets away. He can move up to one area away.

Reverse Hold: The defender not only slips out of the hold, he turns around and grabs the guy who was hold­ing him, without making a second FEAT roll! If he doesn't want to reverse the hold, he can move one area away instead.

Grab: The attacker pulls whatever he was trying to grab out of the defender's grasp.

Break: The attacker grabs what he wanted, but not the way he wanted. If it's delicate, the object breaks. If it's a gun, bomb, or something else that can go off, it goes off. AoU dice for everything important in the area - the object (or character) with the lowest dice roU gets hit.

1 Area: The defender gets knocked right out of his area into an adjacent one. The attacker picks the area. The two areas must be next to each other. If there's a wall in

Table 4: Weapons

Weaeon Range Damage

Handgun 3 6 pts

Rifle 10 10 pIs

Assault Rifle 7 10 pIS

Shotgun 3 20 pts

Bow 5 6 pIS

Crossbow 3 10 pIs

Knife T 10 pIs/or as Ihrown

Spear T 10 pts/or as thrown

Sword 0 10 ptslor as thrown

Blunt Weapon 0 Strength· 1 column

between - well, nobody said this job was easy. If the guy who did the punching is stronger than the material of the waU, the hero goes through it. Otherwise, he bounces off. In either case, the guy who got slammed loses more Health points, the same as if he'd been punched again.

Same Area: The defender gets knocked down in the same area. A little embarrassing, but not too bad other­wise. It slows him down, though, because the clown on the floor has to spend one round getting up before he does much of anything else.

1-10 Rounds: This guy is going to La-Ia Land. He loses aU of his Health points and passes out. RoU one die -this sleepy-head is out for that number of rounds. When he wakes up, he recovers as many Health points as his Endurance rank number. He doesn't make an Endur­ance FEAT roll to see if he starts losing Endurance ranks.

Notes

can be fired with 1 hand

must use 2 hands to fire

2 hands 10 fire

2 hands to fire

2 hands to fire

2 hands to fire, 1 round to reload

blade up to 12 inches long

any blade with a handle over 1 foot long

blade more than 12 inches long

shift right 1 column when attacking

Thrown Item T Material or Strength rank blunt, thrown objects don't

14

number, whichever is lower kill - they stun instead

Special (lasers, See Building Things bombs, etc.)

T Thrown weapons have a range equal to Ihe number of ranks that the thrower's Strength is above Typical, plus one.

In case you're wondering how all this works, I've arranged for a little demonstration between Captain America and Spider-Man. Pay close attention, now.

All right, you two, I want a nice, clean fight. No gouging, no spitting, and lots of variety.

That thing'makes a good target, Cap!

Spider-Man wins initiative, and kicks Captain America's shield. Spider-Man's dice roll is 83. Cap's shield soaks up the damage, but the kick was a possible slam. Cap's Endurance roll is 42, so he's knocked down and can't do anything else this round.

Heads up, Web-slinger!

This time Cap wins initiative, and gets tricky. Instead of attacking Spider-Man, Cap tosses his shield at a stack of crates, trying to knock it over. The dice roll is 82-8ull's Eye! And Spidey is buried under an avalanche of packing crates.

C'mon, Cap, you must be able to do better than that! Ben told me you were tough!

Captain America is attacking, but Spider-Man is dodging this round. Spidey dodges with a dice roll of 70, giving him four shifts to the left. Cap attacks, but rolls 32. Nor­mally this would hit, but because Spider-Man is dodging, Cap's Fighting is reduced to Good and 32 isn't high enough to be a hit.

Don't get cocky, Spider-Man. I'm not out of this yet.

Cap can't do anything but get up this round. It looks like Web-head is giving him time to get back on his feet, but he's moving in to attack again next round.

Nice try, friend. Let's do this again sometime!

Thanks, but no, thanks.

As my Aunt Petunia would say, "That about wraps it up."

15

All right, you know how to move and fight, and what the numbers and abilities mean. Now it's time to play your first.

MARVEL SUPER H EROESTM A dventure

The third book in this game is the Adventure Book. You can use what you've learned in the Battle Book to play the bailie games in the Adventure Book.

Before you start, a player must volunteer to be the Judge. Usually, the person who owns the game or knows the rules best is the Judge. The Judge does the most work because he makes sure everybody follows the rules, but he also controls all the bad guys. If there are a lot of bad guys, you can have two or three Judges, but each Judge should get to control at least one super­powered bad guy.

The other players are the good guys. It's best if each player controls only one hero. These players should read their hero's information card carefully before the game and make sure they understand all of the hero's abilities and super powers.

Once the battle starts, the Judge is like a referee. He makes decisions and rolls dice for the bad guys, and keeps track of the bad guys' Health and Karma points. When the players tell the Judge what their heroes are doing, the Judge tells the players what the heroes see and hear, or what the bad guys are doing. The easiest way for the Judge to handle all this is to follow the step­by-step order outlined in "It's Clobberin' Time!"

The Adventure Book and the MARVEL SUPER HEROES'� game adventures sold separately tell a com­ptete comic-book story. The Adventure Book is divided into chapters, and each chapter deals with one battle, event, or discovery.

The chapters in the Adventure Book are divided into three sections: BailIe, Campaign and Aftermath. If you haven't played any adventures yet, all you need to read is the introduction and the battle section of "The Meet­ing and the Mystery." It tells how to play your first MAR­VEL SUPER HEROEST� baltle! Campaign stuff is explained in the Campaign Book - you'll get to that before long.

Each chapter's battle section describes the big fight in

16

that chapter. (Some chapters don't have fights, so they don't have a battle section.) The batlle section tells you:

'Who the villains are and how many thugs work for them (sometimes we call bad guys non-player char­acters, or NPCs).

-Where the heroes and villains are when the bailie starts.

'What the villains are trying to do - rob a bank, take over the world, or just bother nice guys like me.

• How the villains intend to carry out their plans -Doctor Doom acts differently than Doctor Octopus, for example.

The campaign rules are described in the second rule book (called the Campaign Book - neat, huh?). The campaign rules add all the things that aren't battles: friends and enemies, newspapers and television, police, detective work. Battles are a lot of fun, but the campaign rules are even more fun. The Aftermath Sec­tion wraps up each chapter.

If you're only playing the battles, the players and judge do two things at the end of each chapter:

1) Set the heroes' Karma back to its starting value.

2) Adjust the heroes' and villains' Health scores according to the instructions in the Aftermath sec­tion. Sometimes heroes get lots of Health paints back, and sometimes they don't get any. It depends on how much time they have to rest between battles.

After playing the ballies in "Day of the Octopus," you might wonder what to do next. My buddies at TSR, Inc. publish new Adventure Books pretty often, but you can make up your own fights and adventures, too. Just answer a few questions covered in the battle section (Who are the bad guys? What do they want?), pick a few heroes to save the day, and let 'er rip!

ThaI's it for the Batlle Book, true believers. II you're still not sure how something works, or just want to ask some questions, send your comments and questions to:

MARVEL SUPER HEROES'" Questions POB 756 Lake Geneva, WI

53147

Be sure to include a stamped self-addressed return envelope with your leUer-Uatu has a hard time getting stamps on the moon.

Credits Designed by

Jeff Grubb Co-Creators

Written by

Sieve Winter

Special Thanks To HarOld Johnson. for keeping sharp ob­jects out of our hands.

Editing: Troy Denning Graphic Design: Ray Silbersdort and Kitty Thompson Lots of helplul ldeas Irom Bruce Nesmith and Cunis Smith Cover An: AI Milgram Une An: AI Milgram Maps: Dave ·'Diesel·· LaForce Box cover An: John Romita. Sr.

...,

d' <!'

ty is

01-05

06·10

1 1-15

16·20

21-25

26·30

31·35

36·40

41·45

46·50

51-55

56·60

61·65

66-70

71·75

76·80

81·85

86·90

91 ·94

95·97

98·99

1 00

Fighting

Slug.es. Hack & Sla.h

Miss Miss

lIB lIB

Slam Stun

6850XXX1919

THE UNIVERSAL TABLE

...,

v� 'I." �

6

THE BATTLE EFFECTS TABLE

Agility Strength

Dodging Grappling Eaeeplng Snatching

Miss Miss Miss Miss Miss

l1li � - - - -

Bull's-Eye 4 shifts Hold Escape Grab

Charging

Miss

aft

Slam

Endurance

Slam?

1 area

No slam

Stun?

,·10 rounds

No stun